Do you have expectations? Who do they go to? How do they impact the relationships in your life? Who has them on you?

In this episode youth advocate, teen expert and mother of three teenagers – Lucy Dahill – presents what expectations are, the flavour of fear teenagers have of disappointing their parents in the face of expectations, and how parents should understand the source of expectations so as to avoid unnecessary disappointment.

Lucy talks about the three key areas that expectations appear in our lives as parents: expectations on ourselves, expectations on others, and expectations for ourselves. She also asks us to think about what WE do when we don’t meet expectations. Do we then set expectations on others so as to alleviate some of the pressure from the expectations that we are living under? She talks about how the expectations we set on others may clash with the expectations they have of us, and to understand that the communication of the underlying values within expectations is more important than just knowing what is right and wrong.